How To Build an Open Source House?

An anonymous reader writes "I'm starting a project that I hope that the engineers, makers and general DIYers in the Slashdot crowd can help out with. The full story's on the website, but the short version is as follows: my aim is to make a cheap, recycled, sustainable building, to document the process fully and to release anything that would help others to do the same. I intend to use an old train carriage as the shell, but the ideas should extend to shipping containers, aeroplane fuselages or anything similar. I know I'm not the first to do this, but I can't see anyone else who's provided a detailed step-by-step account of the build, complete with plans and the rest. Before I start, though, I'm trying to draw on as much collective experience as possible, and to head off mistakes before they happen. My question to Slashdot is simple: what do you think I need to know before I begin?"

Comments

Know the right people

[IndustrialComplex]

First off, build a list of local electricians and plumbers, and the name of whomever is going to sign off on this house with regard to permits and other legal issues. IE: People who know your local regulations.

Get their opinion and evaluate their willingness to work with you, because the last thing you want is a finished project that gets condemned.

Re:Know the right people

[ngrier]

Right on. Even if you learn enough to be a:

• Plumber
• Electrician
• Engineer
• Architect
• HVAC installer
• ...

  you'll still need to design plans, get permits and get the whole thing inspected and approved. And while most jurisdictions will allow you to make said improvements to your own dwelling, they're going to go over everything with a fine tooth comb if you're not licensed in that trade. My parents built their own home, but even still, got help from all the above to do the plans, oversee inspections and help with the trickier parts of each of those aspects. Good luck, though. A worthy endeavor.

Re:Know the right people

[AshtangiMan]

I'll second this. I'm an architect and have a friend who is also an architect who had a plan to add to his existing house using some shipping containers. After drawing the detailed plans, the city refused to permit (I'm not sure exactly why, but he scrapped the idea). You'll want to put together a fairly detailed set of drawings, calling out the shipping container (or other shell), how it is finished, insulated, how the electrical, mechanical, and plumbing systems interact, the windows and exits (for life and safety code), etc. I would make sure to have all the decisions made before I started, and consult with the various engineers (MEP, structural, civil) before going to the permitting authority. The biggest deal (depending on your location I suppose) is the insulation. If you can rely on passive solar for heat and you can find some good heat storage mechanism (I'd recommend water) then you may be able to get by with less insulation but it depends on the climate. Shipping containers seem like a great idea (as do A/C fuselage) but are very hard to insulate, esp given the limited interior size which a fur out for any reasonable insulation would make even smaller. I think you'd be better off with using recycled wood products with integral insulation (like SIPs for instance), or even rammed earth or earth block (like adobe) and doing the majority of the labor yourself.

Re:Know the right people

[cowscows]

Yeah, I've only spent a few minutes thinking about it, but I'm having a hard time coming up with a way of adequately insulating a tube car without completely destroying the character of it. Especially if you don't want to spend a fortune on fancy materials. Maybe from the outside it'd still look like a tube car, but on the inside it would feel entirely different.

While I see the appeal in reusing existing containers of various sorts, really the only benefits they offer as a building material is that they already exist and they've got some structural qualities. Other than that, their original design requirements are often rather harsh in terms of long term human habitation. A storage container is a miserable place to spend an afternoon. Just because you can spend a bunch of time and money making it comfortable doesn't mean that that is a good use of resources.

Re:Know the right people

[IndustrialComplex]

I'm not sure how true this is these days, but I always had the impression that, overall, European houses were of the built to last category, while US houses were rather faster and cheaper in construction. 1000 years without any kind of rework sounds a bit overengineered to me, though.

I think there is a difference between built to last, and built so that it's 1000 years before major renovations are required.

Many buildings in the US were built just as well as their European counterparts, but we lose a LOT to people who want something bigger or more modern. There are also few homes that have a succession of owners who have the financial means to perform the maintenance on an aging home. Mount Vernon, George Washington's home, was near collapse before it was purchased with the intent to renovate it.

Modern US homes do suffer from the problems that you are referring to, and I refuse to purchase (or rent) any of the homes in modern developments. I won't reward the developers or the enablers who continue to turn our countryside into throw-away cookiecutter landscape (Personal rant concluded)

But back on point, there are simply parts of homes that wear out. Plastics degrade, roofing is subjected to continuous weather (Stick a stone outside in the sun/wind/rain/snow for 500 years and see what happens). Technologies change (Anyone renovating even a 75 yr old house will know). Every known material will wear out during use.

Take a look at the stairs in some of buildings in DC. These stone staircases have significant indentations worn into them from people simply walking on them for less than 300 years. (I'm not sure if they have been repaired or replaced, so it could even be less) And of course, this ignores some of the issues with the environment changing. Rivers and streams change course even over such short times. Consider how much the Capitol of the Aztec empire has changed over a mere 500 years.

A better approach might not be to design things to last 500-1000 years, but design things to be easily repaired and replaced when they inevitably need to be.

Open source? Avoid the GPL

[Anonymous Coward]

It's my understanding that if you GPL it, Richard Stallman can come and stay there for free.

IANAL, IAAT.

Experience Required

[drinkypoo]

If you don't have personal experience, find someone who does to help you. Especially where code is involved.

Get the blessing of whoever signs your permits before you choose a site.

As an engineered structure if you want to use it in your design you might have to have some kind of plan for the tube car. ISO shipping containers can probably sometimes sneak around this because they are designed to spec, but your tube car was designed for something wholly different and if it's not getting grandfathered in then you may well need its blueprints. But this goes back to the previous point; you may not.

Make sure to use a shared water wall so that you need as little plumbing as possible. You probably want an on-demand electric water heater. It's popular to mount such a thing to the wall inside the house as near the kitchen sink as possible, and to run all hot water lines outward from that point.

Insulate, insulate, insulate. And at the same time, ventilate, ventilate, ventilate. In your situation I would want to install HEPA and carbon filters on an intake fan, but I'm a country dweller, all I have to worry about is spray days. Seems like if you need a heater an underfloor unit will be easy.

I have many grandiose plans for shipping containers but first I need someplace road-accessible to site them.

As someone with an architecture background...

[Dynedain]

know I'm not the first to do this, but I can't see anyone else who's provided a detailed step-by-step account of the build, complete with plans and the rest.

That's because every building, no matter how modular or factory-built, is very customized due to local building codes, site-specific issues, and the personal tastes of the owner or builder.

What you're doing sounds cool (London Tube train car into a home) but it's such a niche idea that of course you're not going to find step-by-step how-to guides. It's admirable that you want to share every step of the process online, but truly "open-source" doesn't really make a difference in this situation. Oh, and btw, there are legal issues with releasing your construction documents for others' use. Architects and contractors are licensed because they are taking on liability for the specifications and buildings they produce.

Re:habitat for humanity

[name_already_taken]

[...] to document the process fully and to release anything that would help others to do the same.

Yes, because his documenting everything and making it available to everyone won't help people that don't live where he lives. Right?

I believe that the point the AC was trying to get across is that helping others learn how to build poorly insulated homes out of materials that aren't really suitable for home construction, isn't really helping at all.

Whatever you know, it won't be enough

[dtml-try MyNick]

What do you think I need to know before I begin?

• It's going to take a *LOT* longer then you anticipated.
• It's going to cost a *LOT* more then you calculated.
• If half of the complete construction goes according to the original plan you have done a great job.
• You have less friends then you thought you had.
• You overestimated your own skills and knowledge. Not even a little bit, a lot.
• If you have the guts, stamina, willpower and cash to complete it. It most likely will be one of the most fulfilling you will ever do in your live.

Building your own house from scratch is not for the fainthearted. But if you succeed you will have done something most people dream of their entire life.

Re:Whatever you know, it won't be enough

[AnonymousClown]

So, it's just like a software project.

Re:Whatever you know, it won't be enough

[cowscows]

Yes, except that when you screw up, you've not only wasted some time, but you've also damaged a bunch of expensive materials that you have to pay for again.

I know software isn't easy, but when the costs for prototyping and experimenting are so much less than in the physical world, it's amazing how much software still doesn't work well.

Make an igloo like in the cartoons

[syntap]

A bread pan and some water is all you need; fill, freeze, stack, repeat until you have a house. To recycle, add heat. Freezing water hasn't been patented by Amazon yet, so do it while it is still an open technology.

Sourceforge

[ajlitt]

There's a Sourceforge project for this already. The developers have done a wonderful job on the home theater and kitchen, but nobody's worked on the plumbing and foundation yet.

Rebut Global

[Massacrifice]

We had a french TV show here in Quebec called "Les citadins du rebut global" (loosely translated to "Citizens of the Global Trash"), which is part home building show, part junkyard wars. They have four seasons up to now, each in which they build a house in a different setting and from different found materials. It's quite a good show actually, it won a few TV industry prizes. The website also has a few interesting blurbs of video sprinkled in the "reportages" section.

http://www.citadins.tv/

In one season they have to build a house with only 15000$, in another they renovate an abandoned industrial space, in the third season they build a house supplied only with alternative energy sources.

I dont know if english subs are available for it, but the process of building a house being very graphic by nature I assume you could grasp quite a few concepts just by watching it. They used to sell the show in boxset format, but it might be obtained from "other sources" too. Just sayin'...

To all the building code replies...

[SuperCharlie]

I am in the process of building my own eco-house. The first step is to get some land outside the "rubber-stamp" "where's your permit" world because when the inspector shows up he will take one look at your creation and since it will not fit neatly in one of his stacks redtag it until it does. What we did was buy unimproved land a few miles from an unincorporated city of a few hundred people. The only regulations we are under are county which deal with water and septic, which is good all the way around. As for anything else.. I could build a match stick house on a gasoline foundation with a blowtorch door bell and no one would say squat.

Re:Open source? Avoid the GPL

[The Flymaster]

Please. RMS has no problems staying for free under an MIT license, either.

I built 4 houses - materials costs not the issue

[boristdog]

I have built 4 small houses/cabins, a couple barns and other structures. Your main expenses will be for utility hookups.

I have a ranch, so my experience is somewhat different since I don't have to pay much heed to local permits and regulations. I just make sure I build above code so everything works well.

Building costs are not much for a simple structure. Your major costs are going to be a septic system or sewer hookup, water and electric hookup. I can build (and have built) a small cabin with bedroom, bathroom, closet, living room, kitchen and porch for under $5000 in materials. But a small septic system, a well and electric hookup will cost over $10,000 in my area, and that's if I build the septic system myself. Just sewer hookup in a city can cost anywhere from $5000 to $20,000 or more. Electric hookup can be between $500 and $3000. Not sure about water hookup, but a well ain't cheap.

So first concentrate on the utilities. That will let you know if you can afford it.

Re:Open source? Avoid the GPL

[Anonymous Coward]

and GNU your wife

Been done before

[mollog]

Railcars have been used before. Insulation, airhandling, all the rest will be relatively trivial. Not having the local council ruin your plans will be the tough part.

Moisture will be an issue. You'll need to seal it up and when you do, moisture inside the vehicle will be a problem. You can use a spray foam insulation. For inspiration on how to make confined spaces into a livable space, go tour a yatch.

My brother built a vacation place on Tenakee Springs, Alaska. First thing he did was deliver a shipping container as a quick-and-dirty, bear-proof shelter. The door of it is visible here. Obviously, it is now incorporated into a larger structure.